Fortunately there was no need to do any listening, as Aunt Hazel was leaving the house as they walked up to the letterbox.
‘What good timing,’ she said. ‘I’ll take that now.’ She reached across and plucked the bottle from Sophie’s hands. ‘Now perhaps you girls would like to walk on the beach before tea.’
‘Yes, we’d love too,’ lied Sophie, feeling that walking on the beach was the last thing they wanted to do. However she and Jessica agreed that it was probably the safest place to be, as they had a hasty consultation beneath the upturned dinghy.
‘What do we do next?’ Jessica wanted to know.
‘I think we may be quite safe as long as we do what she says,’ said Sophie thoughtfully. ‘If we don’t argue then she won’t have any excuse to put a spell on us.’
Aunt Hazel was pleasantly surprised to see how obedient the girls were. They offered to set the table for dinner and wash the dishes afterwards. They politely declined the offer of a game of cards in favour of reading books quietly in their room.
‘It’s a good thing I bought my notebook,’ said Sophie as they sat together on her bed with the bedroom door firmly shut.
Sophie’s notebook was used for many things. She had originally bought it when she’d decided to make a career of being a great detective, but the novelty of that soon wore off. After that she used it to write down important things she didn’t want anyone else to see, but most of the book was blank. After hastily turning a page which had ‘Chloe Banister is a cow’ written in black ballpoint, she wrote WI at the top of the next page.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Jessica.
‘We’re going to write down all the suspicious things that we see Aunt Hazel do. Witch things. Then it will be evidence we can show to Mum when she comes to get us. I’ll keep it underneath the mattress and that way, if anything happens to us, someone will find it and know what has happened.’
This impressed Jessica. ‘You’d better start with the black cat. All witches have black cats.’
‘I was just going to do that.’ Sophie put a large 1. on the first line and wrote down black cat. This was followed by:
2. Belongs to Witches Incorporated.
‘We don’t actually know that yet,’ said Jessica timidly. Sophie silenced her with a scornful look and added:
3. Name on bottle from Pharmacy. Witch Hazel.
‘We’ll have to keep a watch on her and write down everything we find,’ Sophie instructed Jessica. Both girls went to sleep secure in the knowledge that the precious notebook was firmly tucked under Sophie’s mattress.
The next morning started with another item for the notebook. Sophie had wandered, yawning, along to the bathroom but found it locked. She was turning to go back to the bedroom when Aunt Hazel called out, ‘I won’t be a minute dear. I’m just putting my face on.’ Sophie bolted back down the hallway and reached for her notebook in a frenzy.
‘What is it? What’s happened?’ asked Jessica in alarm.
‘She’s not even trying to hide the fact she’s a witch,’ Sophie hissed dramatically. ‘She told me she was putting her face on.’
‘Ugh.’ Jessica looked shaken. ‘What do you suppose she looks like without it?’
‘I’ve no idea but I’m going to find out.’
‘How?’
Sophie had a sudden inspiration. ‘I’ll go into her room tonight with a torch and look.’
Jessica shuddered. ‘You are so brave. What if she wakes up?’
‘I’ll think of something to say. Anyway, we have to watch her carefully from now on and write any clues down.’
Aunt Hazel was disconcerted to find that two pair of solemn staring eyes followed her every movement. After putting up with Sophie peering intently at her face trying to see where the join was, she told her rather irritably not to stare. Sophie decided that this was another indication of being a witch but Jessica was inclined to argue.
‘You’re not supposed to stare at people. It’s rude.’
‘If she doesn’t like people staring at her then she must be a witch.’
‘Dogs don’t like people staring at them either.’
‘Well we know she’s definitely not a dog!’
The weather was very bad that day. A strong wind was blowing, making the waves thunder and crash on the beach and rattling the door and windows.
‘Even Aunt Hazel won’t send us outside on a day like this,’ Sophie whispered to Jessica. She was right. Aunt Hazel gave a sigh of resignation and offered the girls a board game to play. ‘There are a couple of different ones in the hall cupboard,’ she said pleasantly. ‘I know there are Monopoly and Scrabble plus a few others.’
‘Okay.’ The girls decided it was as good a way to pass the time as any other. They had been disgusted to find that Aunt Hazel didn’t have a television set as she said it ‘rotted the brain.’ She didn’t even have a computer. Sophie and Jessica were sent to choose a game. They opened the cupboard, arguing amiably about which game would be best, then stopped in a shocked silence. The hall cupboard had an assortment of things on its shelves. Boxes of games and jigsaw puzzles were stuffed in with packets of lightbulbs and boxes of fabric scraps. A tattered roll of wallpaper was shoved in alongside a broken tennis racquet, and a hideous purple vase balanced on a stack of old curtains. But what held the girl’s attention was a row of brightly coloured jugs. They had the usual handle and spout for pouring, but on the side of each jug there was a face. And such faces! There were old men and old women and even a young boy. Their expressions ranged from angry to shy with even a few laughing.
‘Look at those,’ croaked Jessica.
'They must be enchanted people,’ said Sophie calmly, fighting the urge to rush from the house screaming and never come back. ‘Aunt Hazel must turn people into jugs when they annoy her, so now they’re stuck like that forever.’
‘What if she does it to us?’ wailed Jessica.
‘We have to write this down. It is obviously very important,’ instructed Sophie. ‘You’d better take this and go back to the living room. I’ll go and write it in the notebook and join you as soon as I can.’
She reached for the nearest box and thrust it into Jessica’s arms before rushing to the bedroom. Jessica made her way slowly to the living room where she discovered she was carrying the Monopoly set. She groaned to herself. She hated Monopoly. She was no good at it. Somehow Sophie always ended up with all the houses and hotels and she had to pay rent until she finally ran out of money. When Aunt Hazel asked after Sophie, Jessica mumbled something about ‘bathroom’ and miserably began to set up the board.
Sophie came back, obviously bursting to tell her something, but unable to because of Aunt Hazel sitting knitting beside them.
The Monopoly game lasted until lunchtime, mainly because Sophie kindly lent Jessica money from the bank each time she ran out of it. As Aunt Hazel heated some soup for lunch, Sophie dragged Jessica back to their room.
‘Did you write down about the enchanted people?’ asked Jessica.
‘I did better than that. Look,’ announced Sophie triumphantly.